The Main uses of Apostrophes The Main uses of Apostrophes

To create possessives of nouns.

To show the omission of letters.

To indicate certain plurals of lowercase letters

Creating Possessives Of Nouns Creating Possessives Of Nouns

to make a possessive, turn the phrase around and make it an "of the..." phrase. Such as:

the girl’s dress = the dress of the girl /or four days’ drive= drive of four days

if the noun after “of” is a building, an object, or a piece of furniture, do not use a apostrophe : room of the hotel= hotel room

Then follow the rules : Singular form of a word add ‘s even if it ends is s. the owner’s car

Plural forms that don’t end in s need to add ‘s. / the herd’s food.

Add ‘ to the end of plural noun that ends in s / two cats’ toys

Add ’s to the enad of compound words./ my father-in-law’s money.

Add ‘s to the last noun to show joint possession of an object. /Todd and Anne’s dorm

Showing omission of lettersShowing omission of letters

Apostrophes are used in contractions. Contractions are common in speaking and in informal writing.

Words such as /don't = do not /I'm = I am

he'll = he will/ who's = who /didn't = did not

They take the place of letters and combine words.

Forming plurals of lowercase Forming plurals of lowercase lettersletters

Apostrophes are used to form plurals of letters that appear in lowercase; here the rule appears to be more typographical than grammatical, e.g. "three ps" versus "three p's." To form the plural of a lowercase letter, place 's after the letter.

Nita's mother constantly stressed minding one's p's and q's.

When not to use apostrophes When not to use apostrophes

Don't use apostrophes for personal pronouns, the relative pronoun who, or for noun plurals.

Wrong: his’ book. who’s dog is this?

Correct: his book . whose dog is this?

Works cited Works cited

"Welcome to the Purdue OWL." Purdue OWL: Apostrophe. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Sept. 2012. <http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/621/01/>.